The invention relates to a boning apparatus intended for removing the ribs present in a belly, particularly a pork belly.
The boning of a pork belly is an operation which up to now has been carried out mostly by hand, possibly with the aid of auxiliary tools of the kind described in NL-A-8303476 and DE-A-2237374. Even when such auxiliary tools are used, boning remains a tiring and time consuming operation.
There does exist an apparatus for carrying out this operation mechanically using a thin cutting wire for separating the meat from the bones, but this apparatus does not work efficiently and results into an appreciable loss of meat and the endproduct is not of a high quality.
The invention aims to provide an apparatus with which the ribs can be removed from a pork belly quickly and reliably and without wastage of meat. Preferred embodiments are described in the sub-claims.